More Katrina: GAO Reports Fraud; Trailers Languish in Arkansas

The GAO has successfully applied for FEMA payments using falsified data; a spot check of "damaged" properties in Texas and Louisiana showed 40 percent were "bogus," according to a report released Monday. And thousands still await FEMA trailers.

"We identified significant flaws in the process for registering disaster victims that leave the federal government vulnerable to fraud and abuse of EA [[Expedited Assistance] payments... To demonstrate the vulnerability inherent in the call-in applications, we used falsified identities, bogus addresses, and fabricated disaster stories to register for IHP [Individuals and Households Program].... [O]ur visits to over 200 of the case study damaged properties in Texas and Louisiana showed that at least 80 of these properties were bogus--including vacant lots and nonexistent apartments." Expedited Assistance for Victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: FEMA's Control Weaknesses Exposed the Government to Significant Fraud and Abuse, GAO-06-403T. [Abstract, Full document - pdf, Highlights - pdf]

MSNBC reports that 500 Louisianans a day are applying for FEMA trailers and 400,000 may be eligible. Yet "only 12,000 of the 25,000 promised FEMA trailers are up and running." And about 11,000 are stored at the Hope, AK airport: "one for every man, woman and child in Hope, with a few left over to send to Emmet, down the road."

As if that weren't insult enough, "FEMA plans to lay down a 290-acre bed of gravel for them to rest on, at a cost of $6 million." This is to keep them from sitting in mud. FEMA says that only eight of Louisiana's 64 parishes (counties) have accepted trailers; FEMA also says that a regulation prohibiting trailers from floodplains has hindered getting the trailers to those who need them.

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